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Hi I’m getting married later this year but wondered how the health insurance works out.
I’ve been using 3rd party insurance. I’m not on the National Health or the Shakai Hoken health plans. My fiance is Japanese. What happens to her coverage?
If I choose to enroll, I’ll have to pay the backdated payments but will that mean that she will be covered under my plan and won’t have to pay for her coverage anymore OR will she still have to pay for her own health plan separately. (I think she’s on Shakai hoken)
If we have kids later on, they would come under my health plan right? SO, does it mean that I should bite the bullet enroll with National Health for the good of my family’s healthcare coverage?
Thanks for any advice!
J
Hi I’m getting married later this year but wondered how the health insurance works out.
I’ve been using 3rd party insurance. I’m not on the National Health or the Shakai Hoken health plans. My fiance is Japanese. What happens to her coverage?
If I choose to enroll, I’ll have to pay the backdated payments but will that mean that she will be covered under my plan and won’t have to pay for her coverage anymore OR will she still have to pay for her own health plan separately. (I think she’s on Shakai hoken)
If we have kids later on, they would come under my health plan right? SO, does it mean that I should bite the bullet enroll with National Health for the good of my family’s healthcare coverage?
Thanks for any advice!
J
What is it really about? You decide what plan, type of insurance, who to cover, etc. to choose.There is no “I have to”.Your choice.Just be aware of the results.
If shes Japanese and working she probably has her own insurance through employer or Kokumin Nenkin Hoken. She doesnt need to go on yours. Shakai Hoken is virtually compulsory anyway.
She can keep kids on her Shakai Hoken or Kokumin Hoken policy even if shes not working as long as she keeps up payments.
This was my situation a few years ago, here’s how it went with me.
I was on a 3rd party insurance plan my J-wife was on national insurance. She maintained her payments into NI by herself through our city hall (she wasn’t working) whilst i paid for my health insurance through my company. She got a few suspicious questions from the city hall people (“Why do you pay yourself, why isn’t your husband paying?” to which she replied “He’s his company’s HR, talk to them). But generally it was OK.
When our son was born he was automatically covered by her NI, just had to fill out the registration forms (I think, might not even had to do that). I could have put my son on my insurance, but there seemed little point as he is a Japanese kid in Japan seeing Japanese doctors with his Japanese mum and getting the cover for free.
Subsequent to this I have joined NI (the system for independant schools called shigaku kyosai), when i joined this my wife and son transferred to my coverage, again a few forms to fill out but now we’re all covered by the same plan and no more suspicious questions from the city hall. I didn’t have a huge back payment to make – my experience is that if you go and talk to your city hall/ward office about joining NI you will get hit with a big back payment, if you do it through an employer you probably won’t as you come in under the radar [this is not a guarantee!].
My husband received his relocation package today to consider and respond. He will work in HuangPu in Puxi for a three-year assignment. Housing is $9600 per month and utilities, phone and internet paid by company; car with driver $59K; paid schools; full paid medical; moving and storage $10K (I assume for the three year assignment); settling allowance of $8,900; one company-paid home leave (coach class) per year. Visa paid by company, relocation assistance on-site, one month temp accommodaton while looking for house. Domestic help (ayi, security, gardening) on our own account.
We live in the suburbs of NYC in New Jersey and have never relocated! My daughters are 6 and 8 (from China so we have been there before but not to live!). So far I have contacted SAS and they have seats (at the moment) in 1st and 3rd grade in Pudong. Also considering SCIS. Not sure if we want to live in Puxi or Pudong yet. Haven’t made a look-see visit yet and hoping to negotiate that into contract.
So, is this contract typical? What kind of housing would we get for $9K a month? Looking for a 4 bedroom and yard/garden-hoping to bring our dog (all 12 lbs!). Was just looking online at Greenhills in Pudong. Is Willowbrook part of Greenhills or a separate complex?
I am sure I will have more questions. I am shaking as I type I am so nervous about all this! Any advice, good or bad, is greatly appreciated! Thanks.
If you don’t snap this up in a hurry, your husband’s company can find dozens of people with your husband’s qualifications that would jump at a much smaller relocation package within 48 hours of letting out the word of what they are looking for. Sounds like your husband’s company either has a huge amount of loyalty toward your husband, is too lazy to advertise the position or you are lucky that they are using outdated information to offer this kind of a package. These dream packages are now few and far between. As an employer, this is certainly well beyond what we would offer in today’s market.
There are always exceptions, of course, and maybe your family does meet exceptional circumstances that require this kind of treatment.
Willowbrook is the newer phase of Greenhills. This is a very nice community with big houses and gardens. It is in Pudong, so a communte to Puxi will be a little rough for your husband.
Willowbrook / Greenhills is in JinQiao – a very nice Pudong suburb. There are 2 good international schools right at its doorstep – Dulwich, UK system; and Concordia, US Christian based school. Both usually have waiting lists. SAS is a good bus ride away as is SCIS… but both of these are US system and are not religious. My friends as SCIS LOVE this school (except for its location).
I highly recommend to come out and do a preview trip. It was very helpful to my family to see the schools and housing options, in person, as opposed to on the web. What you see on the web and what you see in person can be very different.
Even after a few days here we quickly realized that for ourselves, Puxi (French Concession) was the area of the city that appealed to us most and is where we chose to live. Prior to the preview trip, based on office location, we were thinking we would live in Pudong. The preview trip ensured we made the right decisions.
That’s a good package, I’m assuming that his yearly salary is $59K, is that paid in RMB into a local account, or in $ to an overseas account ? there are many posts on this issue, you might have to consider FX fluctuations.
$9k a month will get you a great place, if $59k is his yearly salary, considering the rest of the package, the salary seems a bit low although I don’t what job he is going to do. As the rent will be dead money, have you considered asking for a higher salary, but a lower housing allowance ?
I don’t have kids, but you say that the schools will be paid for, are there any limitations in their offer, such as a maximum schooling fee ?
settling fee of $8900 is great, driver and car good, medical good, $10K shipping costs, all sounds great, can’t think of anything else you really need.
really these kind of packages are few and far between, but of course it depends on what your husband can offer the new employer and how much they want him.
would recommend you come for an inspection visit, though you have a lot of choice with $8900 per month and they have agreed to pay for a hotel for the 1st month so you would have enough time to find a place. we have nowhere near that allowance, nearer $4000 and we got a 3 bed 2br apartment in changning district in a nice compound, our company paid for a hotel for upto 3 weeks and we moved into our place within 2 weeks of getting here, though I did take 2 days of work and blitzed the place.
I would definitely use an agent, make a list of your “must haves” and “like to haves”, tell them the areas you would like to live (dictated by location of school and work), if your company has a preferred agent give your requirements to your HR dept and be very clear in the type of place you want otherwise they will take you to places that just waste your time. Don’t assume they know what you want.
Seems like a fair enough package; a few things i’ll comment on.
Housing is $9600 per month and utilities, phone and internet paid by company –
This is about average for your size family. You’ll definitely find housing you like with that budget.
car with driver $59K –
this seems higher then what it would normally take.
For example, I get a car and driver 6 days a week for 12hrs per day…. try to find out that kind of details.
paid schools – normal.
full paid medical – this is above average, i keep my normal healthcare in USA, this would be a nice benefit.
moving and storage $10K (I assume for the three year assignment) – this seems low. it costs ALOT of money to move stuff over, and storage in USA for 3 years isn’t cheap. My company paid this in full, and i think it’s costing them at-least double that amount.
settling allowance of $8,900 – normal… it depends on relocation – my company usually gives 2x monthly salary for moving to country & 2x monthly salary for moving back from country
company-paid home leave (coach class) per year – normal… coach sucks, you should be able to upgrade this though
Visa paid by company, relocation assistance on-site, one month temp accommodation while looking for house. Domestic help (ayi, security, gardening) on our own account – all normal.
Only thing that seems missing is premiums to current salary… i’m not sure if there are any in your package, but my company offers a few premiums – hardship premium, 10%, living overseas premium, 10%, and a few additional bonuses.
OP…
One thing you do not mention is tax equalization.
As a US citizen, you are liable for both US Federal and China Tax.
China can be 40% at your husbands level.
Worse news…every little bit of the package you described gets added on to your husbands taxable income on the US side. Which can lead to HUGE tax liability.
The norm is for your husband to pay US tax as if he was living in the US on his whole income.
(When overseas, the first USD$93,000 of income is tax exempt)
The company pays the China tax, and the additional tax due because of the increased tax liability due to the plus up of the package adders.
(Of course…the company keeps the theoretical taxes you are paying on the exempted 93 grand to offset the other costs!!!)
Please make sure you are being provided this….or you could be walking in to a financial buzz saw!
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